Mercy’s Quiz Bowl team ended its season last week at the Inter-County League Championships, which were held at Novi High School. Each of the team’s three divisions – novice, junior varsity (JV), and varsity – played two games that served to finalize the league’s standings. The Novice team lost against Novice Novi Silver 100-130 and Hartland Gold 60-220. The JV team lost against JV Novi Silver 40-245, but beat Northville Black 110-55. The Varsity team lost to Novi White 80-290 and Hartland Gold 125-155. Novice was ranked 14 out of 16 teams, JV was ranked 13 out of 26 teams, and Varsity was ranked 19 out of 25 teams.

At the meet, MVPs for all attending teams were announced and given awards. MVPs were chosen by each team’s head coach. Mercy’s head coach, Mrs. Katy Koskela, said she took a number of factors into account when choosing the MVPs.

“I looked at participation in terms of correct answers and points at meets, and I looked at attendance and who seemed to be really invested in the team,” said Mrs. Koskela.

Mercy’s Novice, JV, and Varsity MVPs were, respectively, freshman Alexa Rybicki, junior Grace Salzeider, and senior Alana Sullivan. Though the teams did not do as well as expected at the meet, Rybicki was still pleased with her first season on Mercy Quiz Bowl.

“Overall, I think the season went pretty well,” said Rybicki. “Considering the fact that we have a very small team and do not practice nearly as often compared to most other teams, I think all three of Mercy’s teams finished the season off [strongly].”

Mrs. Koskela agreed, and said that she believes the team will learn from its mistakes – and successes – this year and apply them to next year. She admitted that one of biggest challenges facing Mercy Quiz Bowl seems to be its dropping numbers.

“I would like to see more people,” said Mrs. Koskela. “We tried some new things this year and I think they were sort of successful in some ways. I’m hopeful that we can recruit better. The potential is here at Mercy to have stellar Quiz Bowl teams.”

Rybicki agreed, already envisioning ways to make next year’s season more successful than this year’s.

“Next year, I think the team needs to recruit more girls to participate,” said Rybicki. “It was hard when people gradually dropped out or joined Quiz Bowl [mid-season] because of the different sports they played during different seasons. With a larger team, people who cannot make practices or games will not have such a large impact on the team.”